Republic of China

The Republic of China was a paternal autocratic government which governed China from 1912 to 1949 in addition to ruling the island of Taiwan after 1949. The republic was formed after the Xinhai Revolution, which toppled Emperor Puyi and the Qing dynasty. Sun Yat-sen, the revolution's leader, led the republic briefly before Song Jiaoren became its new leader; Song fought against the military's leader Yuan Shikai in a power struggle, and Yuan Shikai's death in 1916 led to warlords taking over China. China was fragmented until 1937, when a united front was formed to fight the Japanese invasion. After the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong seized power from the ruling Kuomintang party of Chiang Kai-shek, forcing him to flee to Taiwan and transforming China into a communist people's republic.